Stuart Brown, host of the Broadway music radio program "On Broadway," reviews NYC and CT stage offerings as well as ruminating about other theatrical matters.

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Review of "The Band's Visit"

In the sweetly lyrical, captivating
new musical, The Band’s Visit, the
Egyptian musicians of the Alexandra Ceremonial Police Orchestra invited by the
Arabic Cultural Center of one Israeli town end up, through a miscommunication,
in the wrong locale in the middle of the Israeli desert.With no bus service until the following day,
the group ends up stranded in the sleepy town with little money and
options.Thus begins the 24-hour odyssey
of the Arab entertainers as they become warmly and enchantingly intertwined
with the lives of some of the residents.

The show, based on the 2007 film of
the same name, focuses on three ongoing vignettes between some members of the
band and the Israeli citizens.They are
poignantly portrayed, sometimes amusingly and at other moments with deep
wistfulness. What comes forth is how
much alike people are, no matter what their background and beliefs.

As he has demonstrated throughout
his theatrical career, composer David Yazbeck’s score is inventive and full of
surprises.There is no full-throttled
production number like “Great Big Stuff” from Dirty Rotten Scoundrels or “Jeanette's Showbiz Number” from The Full Monty or “Tangled” from Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.The songs form a gratifying whole that come
across as more heartfelt and revealing with influences of Arabic and Klezmer
music from beginning to end.

The cast is led by Tony Shaloub as
Tewfiq who, at first, appears as a gruff, autocratic leader of the police
orchestra.As the play progresses and the
actor begin interacting with the residents, especially the beautiful and
alluring Dina, he subtly begins to change, becoming more wistful and reminiscent
under the desert moon.While not endowed
with the most dynamic vocal chords he, nonetheless, suitably conveys his
plaintive yearnings and passionate longings.Katrina Lenk has a lovely and seductive voice.She plays the shop owner, Dina, who is a
tough, no-nonsense Israeli.As with
Tewiq, she initially comes across as dispassionate and tough.But as the magic of the day progresses the
actress becomes more absorbing and reflective, delivering a nuanced, fuller
portrayal of a woman stuck in time with little options open to her.John Cariani is a little too over-the-top as
the husband Itzik, whose man-child antics cause a seemingly irreconcilable riff
in his marriage.Ari’el Stachel comes
across, initially, as a lumbering, boorish Casanova as the trumpeter
Haled.Yet, as with the other characters
in the play, the actor deftly sidesteps our introductory thoughts and develops
into a more ingratiating and charming person.

Director David Cromer plays up, at
first, the drama caused by the sudden confluence of the two disparate
groups.But as the wariness quickly
dissipates he brings into focus the relationships that slowly develop among the
denizens of the small town and the traveling troubadours.It’s the stories that draw the audience into
the rhythms and flow of the action on stage.This is an intimate piece of theater and Mr. Cromer, smartly, does not incorporate
any unnecessary embellishments.

Scott Pask’s scenic design of an
austere, unadorned, rotating structure in the center of the stage reminds us of
both the plainness and stark nature of the resident’s lives and that life is a
circle that continually revolves.Sometimes we have the option of getting off, but other times the choice
may just be fleeting.

The Band’s
Visit, one of the more heartening and enjoyable new musicals this
season.